The Corona Australis Cloud is a long dark cloud in the southern sky, one of the nearest star-forming clouds, with a young cluster buried at its dense head.
At a glance
| type | nebula |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 506 light-years (155 pc) |
| its light left it | 506 years ago |
| size in the piece | about 36 light-years acrossmodel |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with. Model marks a property of the piece’s galaxy model rather than a measurement.
About Corona Australis Cloud
Photographs show it as an elongated streak of dark dust below the bright Milky Way of Sagittarius, thick at one end and trailing off at the other. The dense head is where stars are forming, in the young cluster called the Coronet around the variable star R Coronae Australis.
Its closeness makes it a good place to see star formation in detail: young stars with discs, jets and small knots of shocked gas, and blue reflection nebulae where starlight catches the dust. The piece also lists the Corona Australis star-forming region as a separate entry for the same part of the sky.
What you see in the piece
In visible light it is a dark streak with the faint blue glow of reflection nebulae at its head; infrared shows the dust itself and the stars inside.
Questions
How far away is the Corona Australis Cloud?
The Corona Australis Cloud is about 506 light-years (155 pc) from the Sun.
Is the Corona Australis Cloud forming stars?
Yes, at its dense head, where the young Coronet cluster lies around R Coronae Australis.